Book Review:
Pick Up Your Poker Game
by Adam Slutsky
2011, Turner Publishing
Pick Up Your Poker Game by Adam Slutsky will hit the bookstores sometime next month. It is a slim paperback that according to the dust jacket will benefit you “Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a bare-bones beginner.” Such something-for-everybody pronouncements are usually a sign that the book will contain a lot vague generalities - and such is the case with Pick Up Your Poker Game. While I’m neither a pro or a beginner, I did glean a few bits of useful advice. Unfortunately most of what is written here is common knowledge to all but the most novice player, and what advanced advice he gives on aggressive play would be dangerous for a beginner to try.
Let’s start with the positive. Slutsky does a good job explaining why the aggressive approach is often best - something I’ve heard many times but had never had explained to me. By focusing on the importance of getting information from your opponents, Slutsky rightly rejects the passive approach because it does not force your opponent to make decisions - providing you with no valuable information. But I don’t think a novice player really has the ability to use this information well - or even understand it. I fear the beginning player will come away from this book trying to play the aggressive style without knowing how to do so effectively.
The book is organized into 52 short chapters - each one a specific piece of advice. While I like this approach, I have to say that the central idea of each chapter gets lost in sentences that spiral off hither and yon. Slutsky, primarily a magazine contributor, seems to have had difficulty “padding out” each chapter to three or four pages. I would have preferred him to say what he had to say in clear, simple prose. For example, where a good writer would have written “If you are worried your eyes are giving you away, wear sunglasses” Slutsky chooses to write “However, for those players who cannot hide their “retinal emotions,” the protection that darkened shields provide is invaluable.” Huh? Such purple prose is both annoying and distracting. He frequently repeats himself - not to drive home an important point but to fleash out what should have been a series of four magazine articles into a book. All the good points he makes get lost in the “one wishing to maximize one’s financial returns at the green felt would do well to” and “conversely, simply taking the opposite approach will not necessarily yield positive results.” Blah, blah, blah. I had visions of Ernest Hemingway rising from the grave and beating Adam Slutsky to death.
For all this I might still have been able to give this book a qualified reccomendation were it not for chapter 29: Beware the Player Who Has Nothing to Lose where Slutsky gives very bad advice - that you should avoid playing at a table where some nut is taking every hand to a showdown. That’s exactly the table you should play at! Slutsky makes his case by telling the story of some shlub who takes too much of his bankroll to a $25/$50 game and gets all in with AA only to be beaten by some fool playing a garbage hand. Slutsky thinks this story illustrates that one should avoid playing against maniacs. He should have used this story to illustrate the importance of bankroll management. It is foolish to avoid playing against maniacs - ultimately they loose more than they win and you should always put yourself in the position to take some of their losses. You are putting the law of averages on your side.
Worth a read if you are willing to pick and choose what to believe and what to reject but with so many better poker books out there, why bother?
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Don't Pull a "Hewitt"
They had started with over six thousand players. On day eight, they had finally gotten it down to ten. The next player out would be forgotten, while the remaining nine would become celebrities...for the next four months anyway...so the play was tight and cautious. In situations like this it is often simply the first person to make a mistake that gets knocked out, and in the end that is exactly what happened - John Hewitt made a bad decision.
Up until that point Hewitts play on day eight had been very disciplined. The day had started with twenty-two men playing on three different tables. The feature table is designed to seat nine people comfortably, but when they got down to ten players the decision was made to make them all play at the same table. It would be more dramatic and much more television-friendly that way. As they moved all the remaining players together, Hewitt who was the short stack, commented that he liked his chances of cracking the top nine because he was "the tightest player at the table." This selective approach worked well for Hewitt at first and he climbed from tenth spot up to seventh when for some reason he decided to throw caution to wind and got punished for it.
Here is how the hand went down. It was level 36 and the big blinds and antes amounted to a pot of 1.15 million before the cards were even dealt. John Hewitt, with 13.72 million in chips remaining, looked down at his hole cards and saw king-queen off suit; a border-line hand, but he had been playing so cautiously that he must have figured that a raise here would likely win him the pot as the other players would certainly give him some credit. So Hewitt made a pot sized bet of 1.1 million; big enough to look very serious, yet leaving himself enough chips that he could fold if someone came back with a big re-raise.
The action folded to Badih Bounahra, who was in tenth place at that moment and happened to have been dealt pocket kings. Bounahra made a big show over his decision, pretending to agonize over what he should do. This play-acting, while an important part of the deceptive nature of poker, draws a lot of criticism from some people and is often derisively referred to as "hollywooding". ESPN commentator Phil Helmuth certainly thought Bounahra's acting was very transparent, saying such blatant hollywooding should be a clear signal he had a monster hand. The two minute performance ended with Bounahara pushing his entire 9.1 million in chips into the pot.
Hewitt thought for a moment then called. He showed little reaction when Bounahara flipped over his kings. Bounahara was a 90% favourite to win that hand and win it he did, going up to 19.95 million in chips. Hewitt had only 4.12 million left - less than half of what the player in ninth spot had. Hewitt was so far behind that he would need a miracle run to make it into the November Nine and that didn't happen. He was knocked out shortly thereafter.
Clearly Hewitt should have known his KQo was an underdog to ANY hand that Bounahara would be willing to go all-in with. Later, when asked why he called, Hewitt explained that he felt "the range of hands he (Bounahara) could have had included pocket jacks down to pocket eights. I was hoping I was up against something like that." Let's examine this sentence because, I believe, it perfectly illustrates the kind of bad thinking that even a very successful player can fall victim to. Firstly it contains the word "hope" - a word you hear poker losers use a lot. There is a word for people who find themselves making bad calls because they hope their opponent is playing the bottom end of his range. That word is "donkey". Hewitt made a donkey call. What makes it worse is that even if Hewitt's dream came true and Bounahara had something like 77, Hewitt would still be a slight underdog with a 48% chance to win. Why make a call when the best case scenario still has you slightly behind?
Some would say the 2.25 million in the pot gave Hewitt proper pot odds to call if he knew he was up against an under-pair, and that might be true if this hand occurred in a ring game, but this hand occurred when the penalty for losing the hand was to seriously cripple your chances of making the November Nine; a downside so big that it would be stupid to call. Which is not to say Hewitt is stupid but that he just made a stupid call.
John Hewitt will almost certainly never have a better chance to make the final table at the WSOP main event. For the rest of his life he will have to think about the one donkey call. The rest of us can learn from his mistake and hopefully never repeat it.
Up until that point Hewitts play on day eight had been very disciplined. The day had started with twenty-two men playing on three different tables. The feature table is designed to seat nine people comfortably, but when they got down to ten players the decision was made to make them all play at the same table. It would be more dramatic and much more television-friendly that way. As they moved all the remaining players together, Hewitt who was the short stack, commented that he liked his chances of cracking the top nine because he was "the tightest player at the table." This selective approach worked well for Hewitt at first and he climbed from tenth spot up to seventh when for some reason he decided to throw caution to wind and got punished for it.
Here is how the hand went down. It was level 36 and the big blinds and antes amounted to a pot of 1.15 million before the cards were even dealt. John Hewitt, with 13.72 million in chips remaining, looked down at his hole cards and saw king-queen off suit; a border-line hand, but he had been playing so cautiously that he must have figured that a raise here would likely win him the pot as the other players would certainly give him some credit. So Hewitt made a pot sized bet of 1.1 million; big enough to look very serious, yet leaving himself enough chips that he could fold if someone came back with a big re-raise.
The action folded to Badih Bounahra, who was in tenth place at that moment and happened to have been dealt pocket kings. Bounahra made a big show over his decision, pretending to agonize over what he should do. This play-acting, while an important part of the deceptive nature of poker, draws a lot of criticism from some people and is often derisively referred to as "hollywooding". ESPN commentator Phil Helmuth certainly thought Bounahra's acting was very transparent, saying such blatant hollywooding should be a clear signal he had a monster hand. The two minute performance ended with Bounahara pushing his entire 9.1 million in chips into the pot.
Hewitt thought for a moment then called. He showed little reaction when Bounahara flipped over his kings. Bounahara was a 90% favourite to win that hand and win it he did, going up to 19.95 million in chips. Hewitt had only 4.12 million left - less than half of what the player in ninth spot had. Hewitt was so far behind that he would need a miracle run to make it into the November Nine and that didn't happen. He was knocked out shortly thereafter.
Clearly Hewitt should have known his KQo was an underdog to ANY hand that Bounahara would be willing to go all-in with. Later, when asked why he called, Hewitt explained that he felt "the range of hands he (Bounahara) could have had included pocket jacks down to pocket eights. I was hoping I was up against something like that." Let's examine this sentence because, I believe, it perfectly illustrates the kind of bad thinking that even a very successful player can fall victim to. Firstly it contains the word "hope" - a word you hear poker losers use a lot. There is a word for people who find themselves making bad calls because they hope their opponent is playing the bottom end of his range. That word is "donkey". Hewitt made a donkey call. What makes it worse is that even if Hewitt's dream came true and Bounahara had something like 77, Hewitt would still be a slight underdog with a 48% chance to win. Why make a call when the best case scenario still has you slightly behind?
Some would say the 2.25 million in the pot gave Hewitt proper pot odds to call if he knew he was up against an under-pair, and that might be true if this hand occurred in a ring game, but this hand occurred when the penalty for losing the hand was to seriously cripple your chances of making the November Nine; a downside so big that it would be stupid to call. Which is not to say Hewitt is stupid but that he just made a stupid call.
John Hewitt will almost certainly never have a better chance to make the final table at the WSOP main event. For the rest of his life he will have to think about the one donkey call. The rest of us can learn from his mistake and hopefully never repeat it.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The 2011 WSOP Main Event: November Nine Set
We now know who the nine men who will battle for the title of world champion are, and with seven different nations being represented it truly is a world championship. Unfortunately Canada is not one of those countries, as Calgarian Khoa Nguyen was knocked out in eleventh spot. The nine (with chip counts) who will be returning in November to duke it out are:
1 Martin Staszko. Trinec , Czech Republic (40,175,000)
2 Eoghan O'Dea. Dublin, Ireland (33,925,000)
3 Matt Giannetti. Las Vegas, Nevada (24,750,000)
4 Phil Collins. Las Vegas, Nevada (23,875,000)
5 Ben Lamb. Tulsa, Oklahoma (20,875,000)
6 Badih Bounahra. Belize City, Belize (19,700,000)
7 Pius Heinz. Germany (16,425,000)
8 Anton Makiievskyi. Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (13,825,000)
9 Samuel Holden. Sussex, Great Britain (12,375,000)
1 Martin Staszko. Trinec , Czech Republic (40,175,000)
2 Eoghan O'Dea. Dublin, Ireland (33,925,000)
3 Matt Giannetti. Las Vegas, Nevada (24,750,000)
4 Phil Collins. Las Vegas, Nevada (23,875,000)
5 Ben Lamb. Tulsa, Oklahoma (20,875,000)
6 Badih Bounahra. Belize City, Belize (19,700,000)
7 Pius Heinz. Germany (16,425,000)
8 Anton Makiievskyi. Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (13,825,000)
9 Samuel Holden. Sussex, Great Britain (12,375,000)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
WSOP 2011 Main Event: Counting Down to Nine
They started with a field of 6,865. The action starts today with 22 players left and will end when we are down to nine. Those nine, the "November Nine" will then get a four month break before playing for all the marbles.
Of the 22 left, none of them have names that the average poker fan will recognize. Well, there is Phil Collins (not that Phil Collins) and Christopher Moore (not that Christopher Moore) and more than a few people who actually make their living playing card games, but no one whose ever been in a t.v. commercial...yet.
The chip leader is chubby Ukrainian Anton "Snack Daddy" Makiievskyi. I can't imagine many people want to see this guy win it all - he doesn't have a lot of charisma and won't attract many new people to the game. Except maybe in the Ukraine. The current second place player, good-looking young Irishman Eoghan O'Dea from would be a far more popular champ. In third spot we have Khoa Nguyen - with a name like that he must be from...let's see...Calgary?! Go, Khoa! Khoa is the last Canadian standing.
The players left (with chip counts) are:
1 Anton Makiievskyi. Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (21,045,000)
2 Eoghan O'Dea. Dublin, Ireland (19,500,000)
3 Khoa Nguyen. Calgary, Canada (16,435,000)
4 Andrey Pateychuk. Russia (16,245,000)
5 Ben Lamb. Tulsa, Oklahoma (14,690,000)
6 Phil Collins. Las Vegas, Nevada (13,805,000)
7 John Hewitt. San Jose, Costa Rica (13,265,000)
8 Ryan Lenaghan. New Orleans, Louisiana (10,415,000)
9 Matt Giannetti. Las Vegas, Nevada (8,920,000)
10 Konstantinos Mamaliadis. Durban, South Africa (8,195,000)
11 Pius Heinz. Germany (7,510,000)
12 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov. Himki, Russia (7,075,000)
13 Scott Schwalich. West Carrollton, Ohio (6,920,000)
14 Martin Staszko. Trinec , Czech Republic (6,380,000)
15 Bryan Devonshire. Henderson, Nevada (6,190,000)
16 Sam Barnhart. Little Rock, Arkansas (4,935,000)
17 Samuel Holden. Sussex, , Great Britain (4,740,000)
18 Gionni Demers. Jackson, New Jersey (4,655,000)
19 Kenny Shih. Azusa, California (4,530,000)
20 Lars Bonding. Las Vegas (4,140,000)
21 Badih Bounahra. Belize City, Belize (3,835,000)
22 Chris Moore. Countryside, Illinois (3,040,000)
Of the 22 left, none of them have names that the average poker fan will recognize. Well, there is Phil Collins (not that Phil Collins) and Christopher Moore (not that Christopher Moore) and more than a few people who actually make their living playing card games, but no one whose ever been in a t.v. commercial...yet.
The chip leader is chubby Ukrainian Anton "Snack Daddy" Makiievskyi. I can't imagine many people want to see this guy win it all - he doesn't have a lot of charisma and won't attract many new people to the game. Except maybe in the Ukraine. The current second place player, good-looking young Irishman Eoghan O'Dea from would be a far more popular champ. In third spot we have Khoa Nguyen - with a name like that he must be from...let's see...Calgary?! Go, Khoa! Khoa is the last Canadian standing.
The players left (with chip counts) are:
1 Anton Makiievskyi. Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (21,045,000)
2 Eoghan O'Dea. Dublin, Ireland (19,500,000)
3 Khoa Nguyen. Calgary, Canada (16,435,000)
4 Andrey Pateychuk. Russia (16,245,000)
5 Ben Lamb. Tulsa, Oklahoma (14,690,000)
6 Phil Collins. Las Vegas, Nevada (13,805,000)
7 John Hewitt. San Jose, Costa Rica (13,265,000)
8 Ryan Lenaghan. New Orleans, Louisiana (10,415,000)
9 Matt Giannetti. Las Vegas, Nevada (8,920,000)
10 Konstantinos Mamaliadis. Durban, South Africa (8,195,000)
11 Pius Heinz. Germany (7,510,000)
12 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov. Himki, Russia (7,075,000)
13 Scott Schwalich. West Carrollton, Ohio (6,920,000)
14 Martin Staszko. Trinec , Czech Republic (6,380,000)
15 Bryan Devonshire. Henderson, Nevada (6,190,000)
16 Sam Barnhart. Little Rock, Arkansas (4,935,000)
17 Samuel Holden. Sussex, , Great Britain (4,740,000)
18 Gionni Demers. Jackson, New Jersey (4,655,000)
19 Kenny Shih. Azusa, California (4,530,000)
20 Lars Bonding. Las Vegas (4,140,000)
21 Badih Bounahra. Belize City, Belize (3,835,000)
22 Chris Moore. Countryside, Illinois (3,040,000)
Friday, July 15, 2011
WSOP 2011 Main Event Day 3
Day three is in the books and many of those who lead at the beginning of the day are nowhere to be seen. That's the way it goes. 852 are still left it - which is more than the entire number of players in the 2003 main event.
At the Top: The current chip leader is Patrick Poirier, an AINHO (American I've Never Heard Of). There is an overwhelming chance the championship will be won by a AINHO, who will then become a celebrity. That's the way it goes. Ben Lamb, who was leading going into the day, fell back to 174th - which is still not that bad a spot to be in.
Player of the Year Battle: Earlier I blogged about Phil Hellmuth coming in second place in two WSOP events this year. Shortly after my post Phil came in second place yet again - this time in the prestigious Poker Players Championship event. The amazing performances have Phil at the top in the points standings for the Player of the Year award with Ben Lamb close behind in second. This battle for the POY honors has added some extra interest to the main event as both Hellmuth (currently hanging in at 770th place) and Lamb are both still alive.
Star Watch: Not too many poker stars remain among those still standing - and those that are still in the hunt are fairly far down the leader board. Patrick Antonious, in seventh place going into day three, didn't make it out of day three. The top "star" is Erick Lindgren at 169th spot, followed by Vanessa Rousso in 242nd and Freddy Deeb in 265th.
Other big names remaining include Daniel Negreanu (400), Todd Brunson (514), Mickey Appleman (526), and Jeff Madsen (626). Yeah, I know I predicted a charge up the leader board by Madsen. Oh, well. That's the way it goes.
Canuck Watch: Sol Bergen, the pride of Saskatoon, fell from 16th to the still very respectable 52nd today. In all there are six Canadians in the top 50 spots, including current top Canadian David Barter who is sitting pretty in 4th. One Canadian who will not win it all this year is the defending WSOP main event champ Jonathan Duhamel, who crashed out in day two.
A lot of people say that the key to Duhamel's 2010 victory was when he knocked Matt Affleck out with only 15 people remaining with a big suck-out on the river. That hand has been talked about a lot but I only recently viewed it on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, just type "Matt Affleck Jonathan Duhamel" in the search window. The next time you feel gutted about a bad beat you took, remember what happened to Matt and it won't seem so bad.
That's the way it goes.
At the Top: The current chip leader is Patrick Poirier, an AINHO (American I've Never Heard Of). There is an overwhelming chance the championship will be won by a AINHO, who will then become a celebrity. That's the way it goes. Ben Lamb, who was leading going into the day, fell back to 174th - which is still not that bad a spot to be in.
Player of the Year Battle: Earlier I blogged about Phil Hellmuth coming in second place in two WSOP events this year. Shortly after my post Phil came in second place yet again - this time in the prestigious Poker Players Championship event. The amazing performances have Phil at the top in the points standings for the Player of the Year award with Ben Lamb close behind in second. This battle for the POY honors has added some extra interest to the main event as both Hellmuth (currently hanging in at 770th place) and Lamb are both still alive.
Star Watch: Not too many poker stars remain among those still standing - and those that are still in the hunt are fairly far down the leader board. Patrick Antonious, in seventh place going into day three, didn't make it out of day three. The top "star" is Erick Lindgren at 169th spot, followed by Vanessa Rousso in 242nd and Freddy Deeb in 265th.
Other big names remaining include Daniel Negreanu (400), Todd Brunson (514), Mickey Appleman (526), and Jeff Madsen (626). Yeah, I know I predicted a charge up the leader board by Madsen. Oh, well. That's the way it goes.
Canuck Watch: Sol Bergen, the pride of Saskatoon, fell from 16th to the still very respectable 52nd today. In all there are six Canadians in the top 50 spots, including current top Canadian David Barter who is sitting pretty in 4th. One Canadian who will not win it all this year is the defending WSOP main event champ Jonathan Duhamel, who crashed out in day two.
A lot of people say that the key to Duhamel's 2010 victory was when he knocked Matt Affleck out with only 15 people remaining with a big suck-out on the river. That hand has been talked about a lot but I only recently viewed it on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, just type "Matt Affleck Jonathan Duhamel" in the search window. The next time you feel gutted about a bad beat you took, remember what happened to Matt and it won't seem so bad.
That's the way it goes.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The 2011 WSOP Main Event
This year 6,865 people entered the main event in the World Series of Poker - a number well off the peak in 2006 when 8,773 player battled it out for pokers' most prized championship but still large enough that the future of the spectacle seems solid enough. Today is a day off before play resumes tomorrow in what is officially called "Day 3" even though this event has been going on for six days already. With such a massive field the "first day" was run on four different dates (1A, 1B, 1C and 1D) with a quarter of the entrants playing on each day. Day two was similarly divided into two different days, so tomorrow will be the first time that all the remaining players (there are 1,864 left) will be playing simultaneously.
The vast majority of those remaining are relative unknowns, but a few notables to watch include:
The vast majority of those remaining are relative unknowns, but a few notables to watch include:
- Ben Lamb, the current leader, is a professional poker player who has already won a WSOP bracelet this year in Pot-Limit Omaha.
- Patrick Antonius, a certified poker super-star, is currently in 7th. He is the best chance for a "big name" player to take down the title.
- Sol Bergren is the top Canadian right now, in 16th place. Bergen is from my hometown of Saskatoon, so I gotta root for this guy. With a fourth place finish in a 2007 APPT tour event in Australia, which netted him just under a quarter million Aussie dollars, Bergen has experience in big money situations.
- Tony Hachem, in the 50th spot, is a PokerStars pro who happens to be the brother of the 2005 main event winner, Joe Hachem.
- Jeff Madsen, who has two WSOP bracelets, might be the most feared competitor remaining. In 61st position right now, I would not be surprised to see him make the final table.
- John Racener, who came in second place in last years' main event, is well positioned at 143rd spot.
- Past champions still in the running this year include Carlos Mortensen and Huck Seed.
The Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
Some day you're gonna have to face
the deep dark truthful mirror
and it's gonna tell you things that I still
love you too much to say
- Elvis Costello
I have written a few posts recently about the book Your Worst Poker Enemy, by Alan Schoonmaker. I knew I was getting erratic in my play as of late - the last few trips to the poker room had poor results and when I analysed my play I could see that I was either being too reckless or too timid. I had tried to take a break from the game, but the same impulses that led me to make bad decisions at the poker table also kept me coming back to the casino when I knew I was not in the proper state of mind. Reading the Schoonmaker book was the slap in the face I needed to get me to take a serious step away from the tables for a few weeks, re-evaluate my game and to decide how much of my life I could devote to poker without losing balance. I am still in the middle of my hiatus, but I wanted to let you know that this these breaks from the game are very important.
the deep dark truthful mirror
and it's gonna tell you things that I still
love you too much to say
- Elvis Costello
I have written a few posts recently about the book Your Worst Poker Enemy, by Alan Schoonmaker. I knew I was getting erratic in my play as of late - the last few trips to the poker room had poor results and when I analysed my play I could see that I was either being too reckless or too timid. I had tried to take a break from the game, but the same impulses that led me to make bad decisions at the poker table also kept me coming back to the casino when I knew I was not in the proper state of mind. Reading the Schoonmaker book was the slap in the face I needed to get me to take a serious step away from the tables for a few weeks, re-evaluate my game and to decide how much of my life I could devote to poker without losing balance. I am still in the middle of my hiatus, but I wanted to let you know that this these breaks from the game are very important.
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